OCR Text

Lethbridge Herald, The (Newspaper) - June 16, 1973, Lethbridge, Alberta
THf tnHBRIDGf HIRAID Saturday, Junt 16, 1773 LCC faculty heads slam U of L subsidy By HERB LEGO Herald Staff Writer Faculty leaders at Leth- bridge Community College are unanimous in their con- demnation of a provincial subsidy offered to students en- tering "the University of Leth- bridge. In a statement released Friday, LCC department heads said the government program not only entices stu- dents from other institutes of learning but lowers the standards of the U of L. The goxernmeent bursary of- fer, of per student per year, was announced earlier this spring by Advanced Ed- ucation Minister Jim Foster in an attempt to bolster sag- ging enrolment at the TJ of L. Mr. Foster and LCC faculty agree on one aspect of the program: college programs at Lethbridge will suffer from the financial incentive offer- ed at the university. LCC board chairman Bob Babki says the government bursary leaves no doubt that the U of L is in serious trouble. is no doubt the uni- versity is in serious trouble with its enrolment. The bursary' program just might be the shot-in-the arm the University of L e t h bridge needs. "The lure to the university will hurt our enrolment a lit- tle. A gift is pretty at- Air. Babki said. LCC nursing director Sister Ann Marie Cummings said the U of L bursary plan is not in the best interests of the student. "If the interest of the stu- dent was at heart, then the same type of bursary would be offered to both institutions (LCC and U of L) to allow the student to choose which he wished to attend. "The University of Leth- District animals tested for rabies Since the first of the year 85 animals believed to be rab- id have been collected in Southern Alberta and tested for rabies at the contagious diseases division of the Ani- mal Diseases Research In- stitute in Lethbridge. All tests proved negative, but the intensive watch for rabid animals will continue in this area to prevent the contagious disease's spread. Two Eastern Montana youngsters were bitten by rabid animals during the past two weeks near their homes by a bat and the other by a skunk. The contagious diseases di- vision is picking up every skunk spotted in the area and testing it for rabies. In addition to the testing of the skunks, the division faas tested muskrat. fox. cats, bats, dogs, gophers, and two cows suffering from fox bites. In most cases the animals were reported acting out of character by residents cf the area. Skunks running in cir- cles, bats trying to get into houses and dogs and gophers biting people were some of the symptoms reported. The last rabid animal to be recorded in Southern Alberta was a skunk at Skiff in De- cember, 1972. Power on at camp Lethbridge Lions Club members will see completion of a electrical power project Sunday at Camp Im- peesa. the Boy Scout camp- ground 92 miles southwest of here. Electrical power will pro- vide a source for additional lighting, refrigeration and other purposes at the prop- erty. District Scout, Guide, school and church groups use Camp Impeesa facilities, ad- ministered by the Southern Alberta Region Council of the Boy Scouts of Canada. Turn on ceremonies are schedueld for p.m. Sun- day afternoon at the camp- ground. bridge is setting up a captive student body which entices the student to come for "It is not necessarily inter- ested in the students' welfare after the educational process has been Sister Ann said. Technical-vocationa! direc- tor Fin McPherson says the bursary is in direct com- petition to ail Alberta insti- tutions. "I would rather see the university grant increased, if they are in financial prob- lems, or all students be sub- sidized for at least the funds put forth to any student who applies for entrance to any institution in the he said. Dave Clark, LCC agricul- ture director, said the U of L incentive is strictly a lure with little emphasis on educa- tion. "It detracts the student from his main' interest and would be a lure to take him from, the institution of his he said. Mr. Clark said students en- tering the U of L for an agri- culture degree program even- tually transfer to the Univer- sity of Alberta. He said a U of A transfer program is already in opera- tion at the community col- lege. LCC school of business di- rector D. R, Maisey says stu- dents who know what they want will continue to enrol with the college. He said only undecided stu- dents will be tempted by the U of L incentive. "Those students who are undecided, or who are really just looking for something to try for a year or so, would probably be attracted to the U of L for the Mr. Maisey said. Liberal education director Doug Alston said the bursary plan would be no threat if the U of L maintained Mgh admission standards. He said lowering standards at the U of L (an 18-year-old is now considered a full-time student) represents a threat to college prep. "The bursary represents a threat to environmental sci- ence majors. A number of these students do not have matriculation and could be enticed away from our pro- Mr. Alston said. Beer tanks The million expansion at Sicks' lethbridge Brewery is scheduled fo be completed in October. These dozen new fermenting tanks being in- stalled will produce gallons of beer, enough to fill cases. When the new equipment goes on stream the brewery will be able to pro- duce more than barrels of the golden liquid each year. other fermenting tanks are also being installed on an upper level of the addition. Need friends, not sympathy 'Mentally retarded are overprotected' By JIM GRANT Herald Staff Writer The mentally retarded are being over protected by so- ciety and as a result are be- ing led to believe life is a bowl of roses, says the execu- tive director of the Leth- bridge Association for the Mentally Retarded. In attempting to provide happiness and success to the mentally retarded at all times, normal society is cre- ating a false sense of se- curity which leads the re- larded to believe the world is happy 24 hours a day, says Malcolm Jeffreys. If Integration of the retard- ed person into normal society is to bscome a reality they must learn it is natural to succeed and fail in every day life, he says. He claims most people feel sorry for the mentally handi- capped person, but they need friends rather than sympa- thy. Eventually the retarded psrson should be able to use the same community recre- ation and social facilities as the rest of society, he said. To help make integration a reality the association plans to encourage more use of city recreation facilities and is in the process of work- ing out ?n agreement with the University of Lethbridge and the Lethbridge Commu- nity College to enable the mentally handicapped to bs- come involved in programs at the two educational insti- tutions. The programs would pro- vide physical education in- struction to aide the retard- ed person with muscle co-or- dination and at the same time give the instructors ex- perience in working with the handicapped. Tte association is also in- Museum curator spent first weeks discarding junk Jack Elliot die toolt By AXDY OGLE Herall Staff Writer When Jack Elliott started his new job in January as curator of the Sir Alexander Gall Museum, he decided his first task was to clean out a room to use as his office. But he was wrong. "Before I could do that, I had to clean out the jani- tor's Mr. Elliott re- calls. Hired by the city to revamp the museum operation, Mr. Elliott, who has a B.Sc. in zoology from the University of Alberta an MA in archeo- logy from the University of Calgary and seven years of archeology research work un- der his belt, spent his first few weeks wading through stacks of administrative records and a basement piled high with old hospital plumbing fix- tures. His uniform for that period was an old pair of coveralls. "But I don't want you to get the wrong he hastens to say. "For what they had to work with those people (the Leth- Society) did an amazing job. "They found a building of sufficient size and they ob- tained a collection on par with anything in the prov- ince. "The main thing they had against them was that they doing a full-time job on a part-time basis." The museum was moved by the historical society from the Bowman Art Centre to the old Gait'Hospital at the west Tid of 5th Avenue S. in 1966 and run on a voluntary basis. It wns these former volun- teers, apparently w o r ried about the volume of material removed from the museum into which they had put so much effort, who recently raised questions at city hall about the direction the museum was heading under its new director. "Tiere has been some con- Mr, Elliott admits but says he's had only two people speak directly to him concerning the museum oper- ation. "Essentially all I've thrown out is a lot of dried up paint cans, empty cleaning bottles and all the old fixtures, bath- tubs, lights, doors and such that used to be in the hospital and were stored in the base- said Mr. Elliott. "The other thing that went out the door was 400 pounds of files useless administra- tive information and I cull- ed through every piece of paper in them before throw- ing that out. he says remember- ing one other job, "I got rid of a complete set of bound Lethbridge Herald newspap- ers. "Ordinarily these would have been worth keeping, bu: they had been stored in the basement under water pipes that leaked and had also been used for clippings." Newspaper buffs can re- lax, however; the papers are on microfilm at The Herald, the public library and the uni- versity library. Another area of concern was the some 100-150 items that had been loaned rather than donated to the museum. "There is an insurance problem in holding loaned items amd the city felt they should be returned, Mr. Elli- ott said. "We wrote to the 75-80 peo- ple involved and there was a fairly favorable response when the situation was ex- plained to them. "Most of the items were returned but some were do- nated to us and we were able to keep the items we parti- cularly wanted." It was these actions that Mi'. Elliott feels may have contributed to the fear in some quarters that museum artifacts were being thrown out or given away wholesale. "The majority of the collec- tion I would say between 95 and 96 per cent of it is st71 here." he says. Mr. Elliott has instituted a number of changes in the mu- seum, however, including stor- ing some exhibits and mov- ing others. "I've done three things." he says. "I've removed the 'ring- ers' from exhibit, arranged exhibits in a continuous chronological sequence, and removed duplicated exhibits from display. Mr. Elliott ex- plains, are items that don't tit into an exhibit usually be- cause they don't fit the time period or are inauthentic. The removal of duplicate exhibits left more display room, and the remaining ex- hibits were stored under glass cases allowing the public to come into the exhibit rooms and look at the artifacts close-up instead of 1 e a n i n g over gates in the doorway to peer in. although the gates were retained for a couple of displays. Two displays were reduced school and church dis- plays, the former to make room for a blacksmith dis- play that had been in the basement, to give the public a change. The latter because Mr. Elliott feel religious dis- plays simply aren't in good taste because of the prob- lem of arranging a display appropriate to all denomina- tions. The museum Is open during the summer from 10 a.m. to p.m. on Monday, Tues- day, Wednesday and Satur- day, from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Thursday and Friday and 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays. Admission for adults is 30 cents, raised from 25 cents to bring it in line with most other museums in the prov- ince. Mr. Elliott also feels an admission price helps to sort out the secious museum goers from those who are more in- terested in a little pilfering and vandalism, acts that oc- cur, he says, with greater fre- quency tvhon there is no ad- mission charge. vestigating the possibility of establishing continuing edu- cation non-credit courses to teach instructors of the men- tally retarded, parents and the general public the practi- cal aspects of how the re- tarded person can fit into normal society. The association needs mora volunteer workers to help the retarded adapt to integrating into normal society. Needed most are voten- teer workers who are willing to become friends with the handicapped person, says Mr. Jeffreys. "Friends to take them for a walk, to public activities in the city or to Waterton Na- tional Park for a weekend." He says at least 30 retard- ed people in the Lethbridge district are in need of a vol- unteer friend. Mr. Jeffreys hopes the pub- lic will take more of an in- terest in what mental retar- dation means so they'll be better equipped to integrate with the mentally handicap- ped. The public is not aware that 80 per cent of the men- tally handicapped are in the educatable range and can work and play effectively in the community, he claims. To back up his claims ,ibout the capabilities of the mentally handicapped per son. Mr. Jeffreys says a recent American government study stated that many employers of the mentally handicapped prefer to hire the retarded person rather than the nor- mal person. The president's committee on mentally retarded chil- dren reports several employ- ers claiming the retarded person has a batter work rec- ord, a lawer absenteeism rate, remains with the com- pany longer and concentrates better on specific tasks. Feedlot not being expanded A feedtot at 43rd St. S. east of the exhibition grounds is not being expanded, city, Old- man River Regional Planning Commission and Lethbridge Health Unit officials say. The activity at Dallas Feed- ers, which has apparently provoked a number of calls to city hall, consists of rebuild- ing fences and thus is not con- travening Public Health Act regulations or city zoning by- laws, they say. The feedlot, which is in a transitional area currently zoned agriculture but due to be rezoned residential, recent- ly changed hands. The new owner was out of the city and not available for ment Friday. Peter Palmer, Dorothy Gcoder School psychologist, says changing the attitude of the public toward mental re- tardation has been a slow process, but he hopes the transformation will be speed- ed up with the integration of ictarded children into regular schools. SEGREGATION STRESSED Most educational and rec- reational provisions for the retarded in the past have se- gregated them from normal society and Dr. Palmer feels it has prevented normal oeo- ple from fully understanding the mental ability of the re- tarded. The integration into normal schools would be for the pur- pose of sharing some facili- ties rather than a total in- volvement of the retarded student in the normal school educational system. For example, he claims the sharing of school gymnasi- ums and physical education classas would develop a bet- ter understanding between the normal and retarded stu- dent at an age where it could have a lasting effect. The Dorothy Gooder School has embarked on a partial integration policy by allow- ing its students to attend pub- lic functions such as the Ki- wanis Music Festival. Integration is important bs- cause it provides the retard- ed person with a sense of be- longing to society and helps the normal person feel com- fortable while in the presence of a retarded person, he claims. The integration of the re- tarded into normal society can be more easily accom- plished if the mentally handi- capped child Is instructed on a one student to one teacher ratio, Mr. Palmer suggests. R